Faculty Book: Mary Ann Caws

Mary Ann Caws

This volume brings together sixty poems—many of them translated into English for the first time—by Surrealists whose work is charged with all forms of eroticism. Within these pages you will read the magnificent love poems of Desnos, which rank among the greatest in twentieth-century poetry, and hear the voices of lesser known “poets” such as Salvador Dalí and Frida Kahlo. Poems by familiar Surrealists such as Breton, the movement's leader, and Paul Eluard join work by Octavio Paz and Philippe Soupault. Interspersed with the poetry are photographs by Man Ray, Lee Miller, and Claude Cahun. Expertly and energetically translated by Mary Ann Caws, this collection seeks to demonstrate the truth of Breton's words: “the embrace of poetry like that of bodies/As long as it lasts/Shuts out all the woes of the world.” Mary Ann Caws is a distinguished professor of comparative literature, English, and French at The Graduate Center.